Of Stars and Amethysts
by Subject37
Summary: In this story, Artemis is a lesbian and her young lover is raped by Zeus, this is their story which explains how amethysts came to be and the origin of the brightest star in Virgo, Spica.
1. The Promise

"Do you see her, the beautiful girl with long red hair?" I ask my brother Apollo as I look up to him on his golden throne from a step below him.

"Yes," he replies with his silky voice. "What about her?"

"She's mine… and if you touch her, I swear I'll make Uncle Poseidon drive you down from your daily chariot ride and crash into his white waters." He looks deeply into my eyes, seeing if I'm lying. Of course I'm not, though. The girl, Cleminestra, is my young lover. She's a normal human being, committed to me and no one else. I have to tell her to actually eat her meals and not sacrifice it all to me. It just saddens me that someday she won't walk the lands of Gaia and Hellas, but will tread the soils in my morbid uncle's kingdom, probably in the Elysian Fields. But I keep thinking of today, and not of those days.

"You're serious, aren't you?" Apollo asks me.

"Yes. And if you take her virginity, you'll pay… Promise me you'll make sure no one, man, woman, or god, touches her." I look into his silver-white eyes with desperation, wanting, no, needing, to know that he will stay true to this vow.

It takes him a while to respond. When he does, he lowers his beautifully masculine hands onto my shoulders and looks me in my gold-black eyes and says, "If she means that much that you'll actually call upon our Uncle of the Waters to take your vengeance, then, yes, Artemis, I promise to make sure that no man, woman, or god, including myself, will not touch her in the way I know you don't want her to be, over the River Styx and the life of myself." I break out into a teary grin and reach up to wrap my arms around him, his sincerity overwhelming me.

"Thank you, dearest brother," I say into his shoulder. He hugs me back, and, after a few moments, we pull apart. "I must go, my ladies are waiting for my arrival so we can hunt," my words break the impending silence between us. I kiss his cheek and walk down the steps that lead to his golden throne.

"You actually came up here, and dragged me from my palace, just to make me promise you that I won't touch a peasant girl?" he asks in surprised humour. I smile lopsidedly and nod. "You're the crazy one, you know?" he calls out to me as I walk down the royally coloured throne room and to the outside of Olympus.

"Yes, I do!" I yell back to my twin brother who, in every way but one, is my opposite. That one thing is both of us love women.

* * *

Her moans persuade me to continue my actions to her. We're having sex, but really, we're not because her hymen's still intact, and that's what matters. The waters we lay in are warm against our flesh and seeing her slick skin shimmer in the light that Helios and my brother share only arouses me more. I feel her muscles contract around my fingers, it doesn't faze my movements in her, but I know she's closing into her zenith; the best moment that makes us one entity, one being, entwined so that no one can tell where one of us ends and where the other begins. That moment of pure freedom draws in on us, and her body trembles under my light touches. I can feel every muscle in her body clenching and loosening simultaneously, her flexing her feet and finally she lets go of my back, the pain inflicted from her nails is caused only by her pleasure. Her breath comes out in pants and it dries my soaked left shoulder.

"I love you…" she whispers to me between light gasps. I close my eyes and kiss her shoulder softly, pulling my fore- and middle fingers out of her, and then slide them between my lips, relishing in the taste of her. She tastes beautiful. "I wish I could be with you forever." I draw my fingers from my lips.

"I do too, my love," I utter while tracing my teeth up to her lips, kissing her softly after the words leave me. Her fingers dance across my skin, from my thigh passing my hips and to my breast then to my jaw, her littlest digit touching my collarbone. She shifts so that has to lean over me so she can steal a kiss. Her beautiful hair drapes over us, twining with my black tresses. We kiss again and just lay in the calm pool, the soft wind of Zephyrus drying us of our sweat and the rays of Apollo barely breaking through the trees warm our backs. "I love you."

A/N: Herro all… How goes? Did you enjoy my cheap vanity of Artemis being a lesbian? If you did, or even if you didn't, would you be so kind as to tell me by leaving a review? Constructive criticism is welcome, too, thanks.

KNQ


	2. The Hunt

"Come on girls!" I cry out to my followers, hearing the deep breathing and running footsteps of a little over fifty women on my back. I know that Cleminestra is right behind me. I know the sound of her feet hitting the ground when she runs, the sound of her breath, the sound of _her_. It's been a fortnight since I made my brother vow to me to protect her. We catch sight of the lost doe we had been stalking since early morning, when Aurora settled the road that Apollo drives his flaming chariot on. "Deuceira, shoot first!"

Deuceira is a young girl, barely past her first menstrual cycle, whose mother wants her to be protected by me. This is her first hunt with us.

We all stop around a clearing, trapping the young doe inside its wall of trees. Deuceira steps into the clearing, her spear at the ready and wolves at her feet that snap at the poor deer, she flexes her arm to throw the weapon. She lunges forth and her aim is true. The tension we all feel is relieved after this and the rest of the women all go into the clearing to finish off the doe. I stay with Cleminestra behind a pretty pine tree, and kiss her once. I pull her close to me so I'm sandwiched between her and the tree.

"She's going to be a good hunter, that one," she says to me. I smile, taking her hands in mine and nod.

"That she will. That she will," I reply as I caress her cheek with my left hand. "I want you to take the hind leg for your mother. I would give you the head, but it belongs to the girl for having a successful hunt."

She bows her head, brushes her lips against my trapezius for a second and replies, "Thank you, my love, she'll be quite surprised. I'll give you the tenderest fats from my meal."

I sigh and shake my head, then pull her with me into the clearing. My ladies part for me so I can reach the corpse. I look at my Nestra but say, "Deuceira, approach." A hush forms over the crowd. The pubescent girl advances from the crowd, her chiton sticking to her body from sweat, and curtsies awkwardly. I pull out my sword, now looking at her, seeing the fear cross her eyes, and beckon her to come forth. She trembles as she steps forward. "Take the hilt," I say to her. She obliges quickly, placing both of her petite hands on the silver handle. I step behind her, my body pressing slightly against hers, then put my hand over her own, remembering when I had to do this with Nestra. "Cut off her head," I whisper into the girl's ear, feeling her shudder at the close contact. She lifts the heavy sword, straining at the weight, and then lets it swing down, producing a loud cracking noise at the contact. Blood spatters onto her, staining her grain-coloured chiton red. Cheers erupt from the clearing, my followers roar with acceptance for the girl. I can still feel her shaking against me, so I step away from her, taking my sword from her with my right hand, transferring it to my left, and then take her left hand, brushing her back with my arm, with my right hand and spin us so we face the crowd.

"To our newest huntress, Deuceira!" I yell out, pulling her arm over her head. I look at her and she's grinning. A naiad dressed in nothing but a light blue loincloth gives me a chalice with a crescent on the rim. I place it below the neck of the corpse, gathering blood to the brim and hand it to Deuceira. She takes it to her lips and drinks. There's another ovation and we start taking apart the corpse. The girl gets the heart, and eats it raw, only after being told to do so. I smile and cut off the left hind leg for Cleminestra.

"Here you are, my love," I say after giving the meat to her. She seems somewhat distant. "What's wrong?"

She sighs deeply before replying, "You… you were really… touchy… during that ceremony." I raise an eyebrow at her then place my hand to her cheek.

"Are you seriously jealous of a girl who just had her first hunt? I've done the ceremony tonnes of times, and _now_ you're jealous? Nestra, you should know by now that I love you. Eros pierced my heart the first time I saw you, and you were younger than her," she lays her hand over mine as I twine my other hand through her hair. She nestles her head against my chest.

"You're right, forgive me for my foolishness."

"Come, we have to bathe," I take her hand and walk amidst my followers, knowing that they won't notice us. We walk to our large pool that the naiad Anthenara allows us to bathe in. All of us strip and jump in. Because Deuceira is new, she gets to bathe closest to me. The water is perfect, warm yet cooler than the air. It takes the sweat off of us, refreshing us from our exploit.

I allow the women and nymphs do whatever they want and just lay with my head against the bank, my body submerged in the water. Nestra is on my left side and Deuceira on my right. I feel their hands, the experienced ones of my lover and the innocent ones of my newest huntress take their time in washing me. It's soothing.

* * *

"Artemis, I have to go home," she says while giggling. I grin and continue tickling her sides, feeling the tug in my stomach pulling me upwards. The fiery chariot of my twin is descending into the stables of his nightly palace and soon I must ride my own chariot across the sky.

"Tell your mother to enjoy the meat, and eat!" I kiss her once on the lips, "I love you, and I'll see you when Aurora wakes you." Her hands slide off my body and I look at her once more, blowing her one more kiss.

She looks at me with affection before turning to her home.

"Artemis!" I hear her yell with fear in her voice. But it's too late to go to her, I've already succumbed to the pull of the moon.

A/N: What happens? What happens?

KNQ


	3. The Damned

I awake to find my Nestra ten paces away. I look at her, and try to figure out what's wrong. She lays with one knee pressed to her stomach, her arms outstretched toward me. Her fingers are contorted grotesquely, curling into the ground in pain. Her hair is dishevelled and riddled with leaves. In my grogginess I can't figure out what's wrong. And then I see the blood.  
I smell it before I see it, actually. Her innocence was taken last night, blood cakes her thin chiton between her thighs. Who would take her? Why would they take the one thing I cherished? My love... Apollo! He was supposed to watch over her! I stand and walk to her from the tree on which I slept upon in the early hours of dawn as Aurora sprinkled her rosy road for my brother to ride upon. I stumble to her, not really wanting to comprehend what's happening. In my cage of ribs, my heart quivers rapidly. My mouth is a desert as I approach her.  
I drop to my knees before her. Zephyrus ruffles my hair around me slightly but I don't notice. Tentatively, I put a shaking hand onto her face. She breathes in broken gasps. I pull her into my arms softly, keeping a sob in. It rumbles, but I ignore it, looking at my beloved. Her head rests in my right hand, her waist in my opposite arm. A slight groan emits from her mouth.  
"N-Nestra?" I whisper, barely audible to my own ears. Her eyes open the slightest crack. The green of her pupils is dark, almost brown. "Cleminestra..." Her rugged breath escapes her lips that turn into the slightest of smiles. "Ah... Art..." she can barely speak.  
"Shush, my love," I breathe out, desperate. She pushes her head up in what would be a nod and closes her eyes. Her quavering breath is all that tells me that she's alive. I pull her close to me and kiss her forehead.

* * *

"Apollo, you...." I can't even express my anger for him. He sits above me, again, on his throne in Olympus. He doesn't look me in the eye. I stand and start to pace. "You... you liar... You promised me you'd protect her!" Step, step, step, step, turn around, step. I look at him. "I can't believe you'd let this happen. You promised on the River Styx!"  
At that, he looks at me. "Dearest sister, you must realize, I did try my hardest to stop him. I promised I would try my hardest within all my power, and I did," he explains to me. It doesn't calm me down.  
"Yeah? Well this deity must be stronger than you. If he was able to overpower you and rape my beloved and you're still alive, his power must surpass yours'. Who was he?" I ask. Apollo flinches at the insult.  
"Artemis, I cannot tell you..."  
"Brother," I say sternly.  
"Please don't make me do this."  
I take a step up his throne. "Apollo," I look him in the eye.  
He swallows, "Zeus..."  
My shoulders slump as if I'd been hit. "Zeus? Zeus, our father, Zeus?" I start to step away.  
"Artemis," my brother says. I hear the shuffle of cloth against fabric and marble, him standing up. I start to walk down the aisle of the throne room. I feel his hand on my shoulder, pulling me to face him. "Artemis, I'm sorry... He was drunk and even took out his thunder bolts. You know I can't handle those... Artemis?" I wrap my arms around his upper abdomen, holding onto the back of his short chiton, holding him close to me. I shake uncontrollably and let myself go. His arms wrap around me and support me to him. "He took her... 'Lo... he took her," I mutter slightly incoherently, using an old pet name. I used to call him 'Lo and he'd call me 'Mis. As I speak, I dig my nails into his back. I can feel the muscles tense, but he doesn't push me away. "'Lo, he's forcing me to banish my beloved." I pause for a while and wait for the shaking to stop before trying to speak again. "I don't know what to do, 'Lo. This can't be happening." I pull away from him and look at his eyes. They hold concern, but are also at a loss.  
"I really don't know what to say, Artemis..." he says after a while of us just looking at each other. I pull away from his embrace and wipe away any remaining tears from my face. I take a breath then say, "Thank you, Apollo... but I must leave. As do you." He nods in response and kisses my cheek.  
"Hunt well, sister," he says and walks toward the stables where his chariot awaits him.  
I follow him, only to a different set of stalls. These horses are designated to go down to the land of mortals, Helle. I'm to see my Cleminestra.

A/N: Woah! I actually wrote something... wow... yayy... rejoice, with me!! I must thank all of you for the pleasant reviews and a special thanks to zutAra on fictionpress for nudging me into writing this with an email... Another one's on the way, so, yes, I'm going to update this regularly now. I just suffered a severe dose of writer's block for this story. I kept wanting to make it that Artemis is told by Pan or Hermes or something about Nestra... then I just started to write tonight and, boom, she finds her herself. This is too long, but, thank you all so very much -smilie-  
KNQ


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